Systems or machines are known in the art of packaging, for creating packages having predetermined dimensions, and adapted to contain one or more items to be shipped or stored.
These machines can create a package from a sheet of base material, e.g. corrugated cardboard or the like.
Particularly, most of these machines can create a substantially box-like package by appropriately shaping a previously cut and creased sheet.
Therefore, all of these arrangements suffer from the drawback that the cardboard must be first submitted to a cutting and creasing step, to be carried out in a machine external to the system, often located in other factories or departments.
Nevertheless, some systems afford adjustment of certain internal members thereof, to form packages with variable dimensions.
EP2697124 discloses an apparatus for creating cardboard containers of variable sizes. This apparatus comprises a forming station with a frame composed of a pair of longitudinal members that slidingly support a plurality of plate-like forming tools, which are designed to delimit the forming area. The forming area has the same size as the package to be created, and the frame also comprises a pair of transverse members that slidingly support the longitudinal members to change the distance therebetween in a predetermined range from minimum to maximum values. By appropriate adjustment of the longitudinal distance between the tools and the transverse distance between the longitudinal members, the dimensions of the forming area may be changed to form packages of variable dimensions.
A first drawback of this arrangement is that the distances between the longitudinal members and the tools must be manually adjusted by an operator, which involves long downtimes and a dramatic reduction of throughput.
Furthermore, this apparatus has no pressure means for interacting with the cavity and shape the package, whereby the formation of the box requires the installation of pushing systems external to the apparatus and interacting with the die.
In view of at least partially obviating these drawbacks, package-forming systems have been developed, that can automatically and autonomously change the dimensions of the box.
AU20154060 discloses a system for forming cardboard boxes, which comprises a die having a cubic cavity, delimited by four corner elements that are slidingly mounted to respective straight guides. An actuator is placed at the top of the die, and is able to vertically move between a lifted position, in which it is outside the cavity, to a lowered position in which it is within the cavity.
Once the sheet has been cut and creased, it is placed on top of the die when the actuator is in the lifted position, and as the latter is lowered, the sheet is gradually pushed into the die to thereby form a box-like enclosure due to the interaction exerted by the corner elements with its outer surface.
Driving means are associated with the corner elements for promoting controlled movement thereof toward or away from each other to change the dimensions of the die.
Furthermore, the actuator has a pair of projecting appendices, that can be controllably moved to change the plan projection of the actuator for mating and synchronization thereof with the dimensions of the die.
The main drawback of this arrangement is that the cut and creased sheet must be manually placed on the die, whereby the package-forming process is actually semiautomatic.
Furthermore, the package must be also manually removed from the die, which will further reduce the throughput of the system.
An additional drawback of this arrangement is that the wings of the actuator can be adjusted within a limited range, and as a result the system can create packages whose dimensions are variable within a small adjustment range.
Also, an important drawback of this arrangement is that the apparatus can create boxes having an open bottom or an open sidewalk, that are required to be manually closed using adhesive tape or glue, before introducing the material to be packaged therein.